And We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to Dallas Seavey, winner of the 2014 Iditarod! Dallas's time was a record breaking 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, 19 seconds.


Phil Sanstrum from Budget & Financial Planning selected Dallas as his musher in our Money for Mushers fundraiser and receives a $10 gift certifcate to the coffee place of his choice.

We will be giving the Multnomah County Animal Shelter $450 from our fundraiser this year. Nice job, everyone! Thank you to everyone who participated. There is still time to put in a donation, even if you missed out on the fun of following your musher.


Below is the list of employees that participated and the mushers they were assigned. Where the mushers have finished I put their position ("Scratched" means they pulled out of the race before finishing).


I'll continue to post to the blog until everyone is in Nome and the race wraps up. Be sure to keep checking the Iditarod web site, too, as there are lots of interesting stories coming up about the mushers trials and tribulations on the trail.


Thank you for letting me share my enjoyment of the Iditarod with you. This year was particularly interesting and had some twists and turns all the way up to the moment the first dog nose crossed over the finish line. I hope you all enjoyed it. The Charitable Giving team would love your feedback on what you liked, didn't like, learned, would like to see next year. Feel free to post here or email me.

Employee	Department	Musher Assigned	Musher placement
Sanstrum	BFP	Dallas Seavey	1
Leibrand	FMS	Aliy Zirkle	2
Metcalf	BFP	Mitch Seavey	3
Gallucci	FMS	Joar Leifseth Ulsom	4
Whitehead	DES	Sonny Lindner	5
Humphrey, S	CD	Martin Buser	6
Hall	OGM	Jessie Royer	7
Metcalf	BFP	Ray Redington Jr	8
Jarrell	FMS	Aaron Burmeister	10
Seeger	FMS	Michael Williams Jr.	11
Isaac	Outside	Ken Anderson	12
Hall	OGM	Peter Kaiser	13
Foster	IT	Matt Failor	15
Peyton	DES	Wade Marrs	16
Hall	OGM	John Baker	19
Hall	OGM	Michelle Phillips	20
Peyton	DES	Robert Sorlie	21
Mayzak, C	IT	Ralph Johannessen	22
Sanstrum	BFP	Curt Perano	23
Marshall	DES	Cim Smyth	24
Pederson	DES	Paige Drobney	25
Macy	BFP	Rick Casillo	26
Shetterly	UDP	Allen Moore	27
Isaac	Outside	Paul Gebhardt	28
Isaac	Outside	Kristy Berington	30
Guillam-Chapman	DES	Dan Kaduce	31
Sanstrum	BFP	Katherine Keith	32
Moore, F	DES	Jason Mackey	34
Hall	OGM	Karin Hendrickson	36
Peyton	DES	Karen Ramstead	Scratched
Guillam-Chapman	DES	Linwood Fielder	Scratched
Mayzak, D	BFP	Mike Santos	Scratched
Nooyen	IT	Jeff King	Scratched
Metcalf	BFP	Kelly Maixner	Scratched
Isaac	Outside	Lev Shvarts	Scratched
Monohon	BFP	Ramey Smyth	Scratched
Marshall	DES	John Dixon	Scratched
Humphrey, S	UDP	Dee Dee Jonrowe	Scratched
Tolliver	FMS	Jake Burkowitz	Scratched
Myers	HRD	Hugh Neff	Scratched
Stadey	ED	Cindy Abbott	Scratched
Stadey	ED	Nicolas Petit	Scratched
Mayzak, D	BFP	Monica Zappa
Gallucci	FMS	Charley Bejna
Sanstrum	BFP	Christian Turner
Hall	OGM	Lisbet Norris
Pederson	DES	Mike Ellis
Foster	IT	Robert Bundtzen
Metcalf	BFP	Tommy Jordbrudal
McCann	BFP	Travis Beals
Gallucci	FMS	Elliot Anderson
Seeger	FMS	Newton Marshall
Gallucci	FMS	Yvonne Dabakk

March 12 Update

20 of our mushers are finished with the race, with the remainder spread out along the coast from Unalakleet to Safety.

The speed record prior to the 2014 race was held by John Baker in 2011 and was 8 days 18 hours 46 minutes and 39 seconds.  The top 4 finishers this year beat that record!  Isn’t that amazing?

Here is the current finishing line up:

Finished 1 Dallas Seavey 14 Nome 3/11 04:04:19 7 8d 13h 4m 19s 4.70 2 Aliy Zirkle 10 Nome 3/11 04:06:41 10 8d 13h 6m 41s 4.70 3 Mitch Seavey 6 Nome 3/11 07:39:40 11 8d 16h 39m 40s 4.62 4 Joar Leifseth Ulsom 47 Nome 3/11 10:01:01 9 8d 19h 1m 1s 4.57 5 Sonny Lindner 70 Nome 3/11 11:50:49 10 8d 20h 50m 49s 4.53 6 Martin Buser 36 Nome 3/11 15:58:58 12 9d 0h 58m 58s 4.44 7 Jessie Royer 27 Nome 3/11 19:03:25 10 9d 4h 3m 25s 4.38 8 Ray Redington Jr 51 Nome 3/11 19:11:10 10 9d 4h 11m 10s 4.38 9 Hans Gatt 58 Nome 3/11 19:40:25 11 9d 4h 40m 25s 4.37 10 Aaron Burmeister 23 Nome 3/11 20:46:14 7 9d 5h 46m 14s 4.35 11 Michael Williams, Jr. 7 Nome 3/12 02:50:02 8 9d 11h 50m 2s 4.23 12 Ken Anderson 65 Nome 3/12 05:27:08 10 9d 14h 27m 8s 4.18 13 Peter Kaiser 43 Nome 3/12 06:28:30 13 9d 15h 28m 30s 4.16 14 Richie Diehl 11 Nome 3/12 07:35:40 10 9d 16h 35m 40s 4.14 15 Matt Failor 57 Nome 3/12 07:42:30 11 9d 16h 42m 30s 4.14 16 Wade Marrs 67 Nome 3/12 08:27:35 8 9d 17h 27m 35s 4.13 17 Nathan Schroeder (r) 25 Nome 3/12 08:52:51 11 9d 17h 52m 51s 4.12 18 Abbie West (r) 69 Nome 3/12 08:58:25 8 9d 17h 58m 25s 4.12 19 John Baker 53 Nome 3/12 09:19:15 10 9d 18h 19m 15s 4.11 20 Michelle Phillips 15 Nome 3/12 09:55:00 12 9d 18h 55m 0s 4.10
Look at those rookie mushers finishing in the top 20 (Schroeder and West)!  Wow!  Considering the amount of talent and experience in the veteran mushers in this race that’s impressive. In other news: I found this great post on Aliy Zirkle’s snoozing team.  Her web site has been one of the best about keeping fans up to date on all the happenings throughout the race for both her and her husband Allen Moore, who is currently in Elim with his puppy team.  Allen just won the Yukon Quest a couple of weeks ago, which is another 1,000+ mile sled dog race. Here are some pictures of the happenings at the end of the race. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is a clip of the winner coming down the chute to that famous burled arch.  I’ve read that he was running in because he was trying to beat his dad to 3rd place. It’s understandable that the media wants to talk to the mushers as soon as they get off the trail, but they are so obviously tired that it is almost painful to watch them try and put coherent thoughts together.  Here is an interview with Aliy Zirkle about the end of her race. Now that the first musher is in to Nome, articles and commentary about the race is dribbling down to almost nothing.  I have to say I’m finding that kind of a let down.  The finished mushers are probably enjoying a nice long sleep and haven’t really had the opportunity to talk to the media yet.  So I don’t have many other tidbits to share today.  Someone asked me what it looked like when several musher were in to a checkpoint at the same time.  I found this great picture, but it doesn’t tell me where it was taken.  Someplace with snow!  And next to it are the mushers bags of food and other goodies that they send to all the checkpoints before the race:   As I find more info, I’ll forward it on to you and give you the final updates.  Don’t you love this shot of a sled dog?  Beautiful!

March 11 AM Update

What a ride! I went to bed early last night, fully expecting to wake up this morning to a very happy, 5-time Iditarod champion in Jeff King.  Imagine my surprise when I found out he had scratched in Safety, the last checkpoint before Nome.  SCRATCHED!   The lead paragraph in one article I read was “The 2014 Iditarod is Jeff King's race to lose. The four-time champion has pulled out of White Mountain on his way down the home stretch to Nome. History shows that the hour lead King has may be too much for second-place racer Aliy Zirkle to overcome.”  The same article was saying Aliy was an hour behind Jeff with less than 200 miles to go.  Actually, this article has a lot of predictions in it that, while reasonable at the time, in hindsight appear laughably wrong.

And then to find out that Dallas Seavey had zipped in front of Aliy Zirkle by 2 minutes 22 seconds to take the win in a record winning finish of 8 days 14 hours 9 minutes and 19 seconds!  He shattered the old record set by John Baker in 2011 by more than 5 hours. Is it any wonder I love to follow this race?

Apparently this is the second closest finish in Iditarod history:

 So much happened overnight!  Here’s a quick overview from Joe Runyan, but you might want to read this article from the Alaska Daily News for more complete info.

A brief summary of events to describe the evening:  Jeff King and team were blown off the trail into a drift wood pile.  Pinned down by the wind and unable to continue for over an hour and half, King scratched.  Zirkle, who was an hour behind King on leaving White Mountain,  unknowingly passed King in the dark and arrived at the Safety checkpoint in first place.
We suspect that she decided to stay in the protection of Safety since wind was reported at 65 knots.
Meanwhile, Dallas bridged a distance of about 17 miles and was undoubtedly mindblown to discover that he had caught up to the race.  Having arrived at Safety it seems obvious that he had the leaders to take him through the wind .
He pushed through Safety checkpoint  for the 22 mile portage around Cape Nome to the finish.  Aliy departed the refuge of Safety and pursued.
And now, we have arrived at one of the most improbable finishes in Iditarod history.  Seavey and Zirkle are almost even, Seavey leading the way.
The rules state that No-Man’s land start at Fort Davis.  Once in No-Man’s land to the finish, a musher is not required to yield the trail to the following trail.  This is a big question as I view the Insider Tracker.
Having done the race 10 times I can tell you that I would have no idea  in the dark where Fort Davis marks the No- Man’s Zone.  Therefore, I wonder whether Dallas Seavey  is in  a predicament.  If he has not reached Ft Davis, then he must yield the trail.  If the two have passed Ft. Davis, then Dallas is within the rules to stay on the trail and not yield the way.
In this instance, Aliy must pass Seavey on the run, possibly directing leaders on the tundra off trail and make a powerful surge to pass Seavey.  This is, practically speaking, not very easy to do.

More info later!

March 10 AM Update

Our mushers were making tracks over the weekend.  Sounds like there was a lot of glare ice and dirt on the trail and very little snow again between Unalakleet and Koyuk.  This type of trail is going to favor the more athletic mushers.  As they go up hills there were will be a lot more drag on the sled and those more athletic mushers are going to get off the runners and run behind the sled, which will lighten the load.

The leaders are heading into White Mountain on Monday morning (estimated arrival at around 6AM), which is only 77 miles from Nome.  They are running about 9 hours ahead of the record pace. Three more checkpoints to go! If they keep up this pace, we could have a winner late Monday night.

Jeff King left Elim 8 minutes ahead of Aliy Zirkle, followed in the next 4 hours by Dallas Seavey, Martin Buser, and Mitch Seavey.  Not only is Aliy the only woman in that pack, she is the only musher that has not yet won an Iditarod.  Those 4 men have won 11 Iditarods between them in the last 24 years.  How can you NOT root for Aliy?? She is currently 7 miles behind Jeff heading into White Mountain.

Sonny Lindner, Aaron Burmeister, Joar Lefseth Ulsom, Ray Redington Jr and Hugh Neff round out the rest of the top ten mushers as of about 7  this morning.

Our current Red Lantern carrier is rookie Elliott Anderson who checked into Galena around 3:15 this morning.  Seven of the rookies are filling the last spots in the race.  Abbie West is the rookie closest to the front at a very respectable 21^st place.  Considering the other names in the top 20 (which includes 6 past winners) that is something to be proud of!

While 95 miles may not seem like very far, especially compared to the 900-some miles they have already traveled, this is going to be the hardest part of the race.  There is a mandatory 8-hour layover in White Mountain for every musher. 

Here are a couple of highlights from the weekend:

·         Only three scratches over the weekend, and all cited their dog’s health as reasons – Nicolas Petit, John Dixon & Ramey Smyth.

·         Aliy Zirkle was the first musher to the Yukon and won the Brisol Bay Native Corporation First Fish Award.  Aliy earned $1,000, 25 pounds of Bristol Bay salmon and a commemorative Jacket.  She also got a supply of canned salmon and smoked salmon strip to help fuel her on the trail.

·         Aliy Zirkle also was the first musher to reach Unalakleet and earned the Wells Fargo Gold Coast award.  This award gives Aliy $2,500 in gold nuggets and a gold cup.

·         Martin Buser dislocated his pinky out on the trail.  There is a rather disturbing video on the website showing him realigning it.  The things these mushers do!

There has been a lot of talk about the trail conditions this year.  I thought you might like this insight from Joe Runyan on the trail breakers for the race.

The trail breakers are the unsung heroes of the race, the backbone of the race, the guys in the trenches, the doers,  the ones that actually get the job done, have a lot of fun putting in a trail a thousand miles across Alaska.

The job is not simple.   The trail breakers must stay ahead of the lead mushers.  The Iditarod Trail Committee puts a trail in front of the leaders, and that’s it.  Even if the trail deteriorates, or a giant snowfall buries the trail behind the leaders,  no further work on the trail occurs.  Certainly much of the trail has been put in over the winter.  In some locations the trail is established between villages.

But by and large the Trail breakers start in Willow and mark every mile of the trail to Nome.  Along the way, they build bridges over open water, cut brush, shovel snow to make the trail useable, change the trail around open water and overflow, and sometimes make decision to alter the trail for safety reasons.  In addition they have to keep machines running, make repairs, endure weather, cold temperatures, and never stop pushing in front.   These guys deserve respect. 

The volunteers also recognize what these guys do and also get a great photo moment with the trailbreakers in uniform.

From right to left,  Kenny Dubie, Dustin Ashcraft (team leader), Jake Fletcher, J R Melin, John Kimble, and Spencer Pape.